widening

1. not comparableGrowing wider or farther apart.

   The widening gap between rich and poor creates social problems.

   1 more example

   Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; […]

   1920, William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

plural widenings

1. The action of the verb widen.

   The widening works include the rebuilding of the skew bridge near Northwood to take four tracks, and to enable the Rickmansworth Road to be widened to 60 ft.; […].

   1959 November 28, “Notes and News: Harrow-Rickmansworth Widening”, in Railway Magazine, page 802

   2 more examples

   She looked up sleepily and asked me what it was, and with the very words I thought she drew in her breath with a widening of the nostrils and seemed to come suddenly and fully alive.

   1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men, Olalla

   Near the site of the old Kennet Bridge signalbox, a down goods loop has been provided and this necessitated the widening of an embankment and the slewing of the up and down relief lines.

   1962 October, “Talking of Trains: New signalbox at Twyford”, in Modern Railways, page 227

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of widen